Unemployment mounts to 30 percent: Report

ISLAMABAD - The unemployment rate in Pakistan has been increasing in the last four years, and according to financial experts, it has actually reached to over 30 percent as the present government had failed to increase jobs in any field, however, the government claimed that it is 13 percent.

According to a survey report, the unemployment rate measures the number of people actively looking for a job as a percentage of the labour force and due to lack of planning, the government had failed to provide jobs to the people, especially the youth and educated persons. Although the government claimed that the unemployment rate is decreasing but the unemployment rate was in fact increasing in real terms.

Despite increase in the business of some of the top business, who are associated with politics, the overall economic condition is not in a good health and burden on the cost of living has been increasing day by day due to wrong policies of the government. The rate of unemployment is on the rise and people especially the youth is facing problems in finding jobs; therefore, the attention of the youth is being diverted to non-productive activities. The youth is about 50 percent of the population, and majority of them are jobless, despite completing their education.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has indicated that Pakistan’s economy will grow at 5 percent during 2017 and if there will be political stability, it can grow at the rate of 5.2 percent in 2018. The IMF also projects increase in unemployment ratio. Economists are of the view that to increase jobs, especially for the youth, Pakistan has to achieve growth rate above 8 percent on sustained basis.

The unemployment rate is increasing in the cities, due to high rate of migration from the rural areas to the urban, as the jobs in the agriculture sector have been reduced due to lack of proper incentives for the farmers. The economic experts are of the view that unemployment is turning into a critical issue for the government, as it has not done enough in this regard in its four years in the government.

According to official sources, the unemployment rate has risen to 8.3 percent during fiscal 2015, which was the highest in last 13 years. There are reports that the unemployment rate always increased during the tenure of Nawaz Sharif as the PML-N government did not take any measure to increase jobs.